New Phone

I had to buy new phone mainly bc Goverment killed Blackberry which was still working fine and has many fans too.Strange times indeed.

Got unlocked Moto G at Best buy for $ 250.

Im no conspiracy theorist but BB with its most secure OS cant be hacked or spy on its users,makes me wonder why kill it?

Btw Huawei is also very secure unable to be hacked and was baned by Gov also.

Maybe its too much competition to Iphone which btw is great tool for spying on everyone.
:B

https://youtu.be/QspfZcS8y38

The older phone will live in my office - although will take it on camping trips so we have hotspot. The new one goes with me when I run around. Mostly so I can call wife, or in an emergency. I will only return office phone calls if I recognize the caller, or it leaves a message I want.

Retired now, so no loss of new business - regular continuing clients know how to reach me ... they leave a message if I don't pick up. I'd estimate half my calls now are Robots, which I block - helps slightly.

Family ONLY will have new number.

As of a few days ago my uber driver had a new flip phone from Cricket. Surprised me.

monkey44 wrote:
I have two lines, but only use one at the moment. I can buy a phone, use that line, and my bill will not change

Been there with the spammers. My old one is now my truck phone. It lives under the passenger seat of my truck plugged into a USB charger. No outgoing voice message, no voice mail, it rings 6 times and hangs up if I don't answer. The truck tells me if I missed a call. After about 2 years the spammers finally gave up. Only family calls me on it now.

Yeah, scammers will try anything at least once or twice.

Typically, we do not answer the phones unless it is a number we know, everything else goes to VM. Although we do still have a home phone as our main contact number but we use an answering machine so we can screen the calls. Let it ring, once the answering machine picks up we just listen to see if it a robot or someone we know.. Robots typically don't speak until you speak and often are able to distinguish between prerecorded message or a real human on the line. Sometimes they do start speaking and we simply stop the recording and delete it..

Our sticks and bricks phone company does offer a call screener, requires the person calling to enter a specific number that you setup before the call is sent to your phone.. Great idea, but may cause issues with DR appointments which use Robots to call you with reminders or changes to appointments.

Comment on those Scammer intrusions... Lately it seems the Extended Warranty scammers have added a new wrinkle - /buysell your home. We're waiting on a call from Comcast to update our home service. Have no clue which number they use, so tempoarily, must answer any calls in case it's the service tech making his appintment and for gate access.

Today, the call went like this:

ME: Hello, who's this?
Caller, male, heavy accent...
Him: I'm Jason, representing Homebuyer, calling to see if you want to sell your house on XXXXXXX street.
Me: Well no, not this one, but I have one in Virginia and one in the Antarctica. I only want to sell the Antarctica one tho.
Him: Okay. Where is Antartica, is that Florida too?
Me: No, it's a little farther South.
Him: Why sell it, and not the other two?
Me: Well, I'm having a hard time dating that far south.
Him: Oh, that's too bad. Why is that?
Me: I guess I don't look or smell enough like a Penguin...
Him: After a few seconds - just a click and a dial tone.

And a follow up on getting a new number scammers may already have. I normally never answer a call if I don't recognize the number. If the caller won't leave a call back message - I just don't call it back. But for the next week or so, need to answer in case it's the Comcast tech.

pianotuna wrote:
Gdetrailer,

I was recommending they simply ASK if their current devices are 3g. Your posts seem angry.

I'll be forced into two new phones on my next visit south of the border. Annoying to say the least.

I addressed that in my first post in this thread which was directly under the OPs first post..

Gdetrailer wrote:
I hear you, miss my old flip phones, simple and reliable devices without the endless parade of "updates", they just worked and fit easily in a pocket.

Sadly very few vendors making the old simple flip phones.

Did you check your service provider (T Mobile)?

They do list a Alcatel "GO Flip 4"..

HERE

I have had Alcatels when I was a TracPhone customer, I would put them as OK, not the greatest or best but OK.

After an issue I had with Tracphone when I tried to use an unlocked Motorola phone I bought new unlocked from Motorola and they (Tracphone) bricked it and blamed Motorola I would really recommend you stick with buying phones from your phone service.. It will save you tons of aggravation..

As noted in my first post that I have added to this response, T mobile is offering a Alcatel GO Flip 4, and per T mobiles own website (follow the link) it indeed does state that the Alcatel GO Flip 4 does have 4G WITH VoLTE..

I suspect that at this time T mobile (or any other cell phone company) would be pretty stupid to offer any phone that is not 4G VoLTE capable..

Now if one were to venture off the company menu and buy an unlocked phone from a third party, that can be a problem (can find lots of unlocked phones on Amazon).

Gdetrailer,

I was recommending they simply ASK if their current devices are 3g. Your posts seem angry.

I'll be forced into two new phones on my next visit south of the border. Annoying to say the least.

monkey44, your not going to "make a mistake" if you purchase through your current cell phone company.

The phone should work fine and should have similar operating range.

There may be a couple of other brands available that are not offered by your cell phone company but in reality a flip phone is a flip phone.

It is there to mainly make and receive phone calls and texts, well the phone keypad dance is one of the reasons I found a smart phone to be nicer to use.

Something to consider though, unless they have added call and text blocking like smart phones you might be wishing you had that feature. Especially since you are adding an extension which results in getting a new number for that phone. Phone companies reuse a lot of numbers when old customers drop service so it is often the luck of the draw and you might get a number that spammers and scammers abused a lot.

Something else to consider, there is newer smart phones out that fold up like a flip phone.. They use a new folding glass technology LCD which bends. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is one example that I can think of right now that may be a good choice. Not sure of cost and longevity of the bending glass but gets you a flip phone that folds compact, has soft keypad for texting plus should have call and text blocking for the annoying spammers.. Kind of the best of flip and smart phones.

Yes, all you guys - I intend to visit the T-Mobile store. I'd only buy from my service provider for the reasons stated, AND from experiences in the past ...

I was looking for info here, to make sure I make no mistakes. I'm not very tech smart. And, ya'll reinforced my idea to buy from T-Mobile. I do have a free line available, so will use it, get a different number, and leave the SPAM intrusions on the old phone. I have two lines, but only use one at the moment. I can buy a phone, use that line, and my bill will not change. We have unlimited data, text, and voice on it ... :) thx for assistance. M44